BEAUTY

While a moisturiser can only get you so far, the next item in your skincare regimen should be the beauty milk: an all-purpose hydrating agent that is redefining the way we approach health. Beauty milk might do it all – evening complexion, nourishing skin, sculpting the body while also looking after the skin’s internal health. And while different offerings appeal to many areas, you can be sure that each and everyone one will cater to a myriad of sensibilities, all proven to elevate your skin from the inside out.

Here, T Australia’s editors have compiled the go-tos to have on hand, and where to buy them.

Tronque Triple Action Body Milk , $110

The Tronque Triple Active Body Milk is a velvety smooth serum offering immediate hydration and nourishment. The formula is clinically proven, with high-performance ingredients purposed to refine, lift, and tone the skin, while targeting the cellulite, sagging, and loss of elasticity across the body. 

Shiseido Extra Rich Cleansing Milk, $45

Shiseido has long held the title for elevated, pharmaceutically backed skincare. Their extra rich cleansing milk moonlights as a cleanser and moisturiser, offering plenty of hydration while removing impurities. The gentle formula is well-suited for a wide berth of skin tones, so use liberally in the shower.

Glossier Milky Jelly Gentle Face Cleanser, $36

Nourishing and PH-balanced, the twice-a-day cleanser is an active component in Glossier’s beauty line. The jelly phase targets dirt and oil without harshening up on the skin barrier. Rose water and Allantoin from the Comfrey root are two key ingredients behind this cleansing milk, and the product is vegan, gluten and cruelty free.

Herbae Par L’OCCITANE Beauty Milk, $52

All of L’occitane’s beauty and skincare is made in France for ultimate quality control. Enriched with shea butter, this beauty milk works better as a lotion to moisturise all the nooks and crannies that are dry and flaky. With a fresh note of wild grass, the HERBAE par body milk is scented like its Eau de Parfum counterpart.

REN Clean Skincare Evercalm Gentle Cleansing Milk, $45

Sensitive skin finds relief with REN Skincare’s Evercalm Cleansing Milk. It’s all in the name: this cleanser can be applied, rinsed or tissued off for those who are after a more gentle application. Flavenoids from calendula in the cleansing milk soothe and heal irritated and damaged skin.

Rhode Glazing Milk, $32

A nutrient-rich, lightweight essence, Rhode Skin’s glazing milk promotes barrier function and provides luminous hydration. It’s also the key first step to Hailey’s essential prep to calm skin and begin the rhode routine.

Violette FR Boum Boum Milk, $102

To use Boum-Boum Milk, apply during morning and night to help rebalance, hydrate and renew skin. Don’t stop there – spray liberal amounts on face, body and even hair – for a quick scalp treatment. The misty-sheened spray is two-parts hydration, one-part rejuvenation.

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The socks look like deflated foil balloons and make a faint crackling sound when you first put them on. They are made in Italy and cost about $50 a pair — a price that some say is worth it for the joy the socks have inspired.

“I felt like I had to have them,” said Cynthia Cohen, 75, who lives in Colorado and works in public health. “When I looked at the price, I was kind of shocked, but I tried to pretend it didn’t exist.”

Sometimes Cohen will wear the socks to liven up an outfit, she said. Other times, she puts them on to cheer herself up: “I just wear them for myself to feel like I’m having fun.”

Since Maria La Rosa, the Milanese label behind the socks, introduced them in 2020, it has sold about 25,000 pairs, according to a representative for the brand. More than half of those pairs — some 14,000 — were sold in the past 12 months.

Offered in some 40 colours, the socks are now carried by department stores like Bergdorf Goodman in New York and Galeries Lafayette in Paris. But a majority of sales over the past year have been at independent boutiques like Yucca, the store in Denver where Cohen bought them.

“In my mind, they defy logic,” said Kimberly Keim, the owner of Yucca, who started selling the socks two years ago. Their appearance has also confused some customers: “They are just so thin like a piece of paper,” she added. “A lot of folks pick them up and think they are single use.” (They are not.)

That has not stopped Keim from selling hundreds of pairs, in shades like aqua blue, gold and silver. Joanna Napies, 57, bought her second pair of the socks, in a metallic navy blue color, at Yucca in December.

“It just picks you up,” she said of wearing the socks. Napies, who lives in Denver and works in digital advertising technology, added that they remind her of the foil wrappers that encase certain hard candies.

The socks, which are made of a finely woven silk and polyamide blend, get their sheen from a reflective foil coating that makes them appear somewhat stiff. The design took three years to develop, said Lisa C. Ferrari, an owner of Maria La Rosa.

“We wanted something luxurious but unusual,” she said.

Fanciful socks have been a staple product of Maria La Rosa since Ferrari’s mother founded the brand in the 1990s. Its other styles include socks embellished with paillette sequins that resemble confetti and with rows of glass bugle beads that hover, somewhat dangerously, near the Achilles’ tendon.

But according to Ferrari, none has caught on quite like the foiled versions, which the brand calls ribbed laminated socks. “It’s a strange look that makes people curious,” she said.

Katie Bowes, who started selling the socks at her store, The Post Supply, in Portland, Maine, last fall, agreed that they look strange — until someone puts them on. As she explained, when the socks are first worn, their foil coating delicately stretches out. As it does, they become slinkier and make a sound akin to low radio static or the fizz of a freshly poured seltzer — another trait that sets the socks apart.

Bowes said she keeps a broken-in pair of the socks behind her store’s cash register so customers understand that “this is a silk sock with a cool detail and not something weird and plastic.” She added that many people who have bought the socks from her store did so after seeing them in a gift guide published last November by Wirecutter, the product recommendation service of The New York Times.

Eliza Rauscher, 40, a real estate agent in Portland, bought a fuchsia pair of the socks at The Post Supply this month. She learned about them from friends, she said, and described the socks as ideal for showing properties where she can’t wear shoes inside.

“They’re not like your gym socks or other socks you don’t intend to see,” Rauscher said. “They’re socks you want to be noticed.”

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One of the first beauty tips my mother shared with me was that I should wash my face with rice water, the milky liquid left behind after rinsing grains before cooking. She swore by its brightening and softening effects and, all these years later, I do too. Rice has long been revered in skin care, a tradition reflected in the luxury hotel group Aman’s Essential Skin range. The six-product collection incorporates ancient purple rice bran extract, celebrated for its antioxidant properties and collagen-boosting abilities, alongside indigo extract, a botanical once favored by samurai for its healing benefits. My go-to is the Illuminating Eye Cream, infused with rice ferment and peptides, which brightens and revitalizes the under-eye area. Damdam Tokyo, which was founded by Giselle Go and Philippe Terrien in 2019, showcases rice along with other Japanese ingredients such as shiso and konnyaku, a Japanese root crop used for detoxification. The company’s Silk Rice Cleansing Oil, which removes makeup and dirt, features Japanese komenuka, a glutinous rice with anti-inflammatory properties. The Tokyo-based beauty brand Tatcha’s Dewy Skin Cream, newly available in refillable jars, pairs Japanese purple rice with botanical extracts that attract moisture to plump and hydrate. The Korean beauty brand House of Dohwa’s signature ingredient is domestically harvested rice from the city of Icheon. The Seoul-based company makes a Rice Bran Sheet Mask that also contains Houttuynia cordata (a flowering plant) and Korean mugwort extract, both of which soothe the skin. Other K-Beauty products, which I’ve discovered on Soko Glam, an online retailer specialising in Korean skin care, are the I’m From Rice Toner, which helps eliminate dead skin, and COSRX’s Ultimate Nourishing Rice Overnight Spa Mask that’s meant to be used as the last step of your routine.

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“As simple as a bun sounds, the details are what really make it,” says the hairstylist James Pecis. A bun can be casually put together or precisely constructed, piled high or pinned low with no-nonsense finesse. We spoke to three experts who know how to tailor the style to any mood — Devon Teuscher, a principal dancer with American Ballet Theatre; Pecis, who runs the brand Blu & Green and will oversee the hair at the Thom Browne runway show this week; and the actress and Pattern Beauty founder Tracee Ellis Ross, whose textured topknots have long been a signature look.

James Pecis, 44, hairstylist

The hair needs to have as much traction or grip in it as possible to stay up. If the hair is dirty, I’ll use Blu & Green’s Dry Shampoo, which is going to stick to those oils. If the hair is clean, I’ll apply a texture dust throughout; Oribe’s Swept Up is good.

When making a ponytail, which will anchor your bun, the trick is to first push back all the hair — down to the scalp — with a detangling brush or a wide-tooth comb. Then, to create a smooth surface, use a boar-and-nylon-bristle brush plus hair spray, like Oribe’s Superfine, which helps to control flyaways.

Back-combing the ponytail before you twist it up will fill out the bun. Wrap the hair tightly around the ponytail base, tucking in the end. The fewer pins you use, the better, because there’s less chance of error. And don’t use anything with sharp ends that could damage the scalp. [The editorial hairstylist] Odile Gilbert makes a single big pin that curves to the head — it’s the simplest hair accessory in the world.

Devon Teuscher, 36, dancer

Ballet buns — like a lot of ballet — are about creating the most aesthetic lines. For a high, classic Balanchine bun, you want a continuous diagonal line from the jaw to your cheekbones, with the bun at the top point.

For performances, our hair and makeup team uses Nigel hairpins, which are high quality and don’t lose their spring or hold. They’re pretty big — about the length of my index finger. They also come in a mini size, for hairpieces or flyaways. They’re not shiny, so they blend into the hair well.

Dirty hair is generally best for ballet buns. We often use Bumble & Bumble Thickening Dryspun Texture Spray to add grit and texture, especially at the roots. That way, if you want a middle part, you can shape the line a bit better. Bumble & Bumble Holding Spray is strong. We also use a small teasing brush with this Japanese pomade called Tancho, which comes in a little stick, to smooth down or shape any extra flyaways.

After every show, I use a Scalpmaster brush with metal bristles for five minutes. When you’ve had your hair in a really tight bun, a scalp massage feels so good.

Tracee Ellis Ross, 52, actor

There’s something about a slicked-back bun that allows my face to do the talking. It allows my favorite jewelry — my cheekbones and collarbones — to be presented. I feel boss. I feel elegant.

An updo with stragglers is not my thing. I’m very meticulous. First I section my hair with Pattern’s clips. I split the bottom section in two and use my paddle brush on both sides; I repeat that on the middle and top sections. I practically soak my hair with Pattern’s Leave-In Conditioner, so the top layer almost looks wet. Then I comb it all back, using my hands, and apply a nice dollop of our styling cream to make it smooth, smooth, smooth. I take a fresh hair tie and go around four times so it’s extra tight around my ponytail. And I brush just the front hairs with our edge tool, so everything’s aligned.

I have three variations of my bun. The topknot is my favorite for driving, for working out, for facials — because if I lie down on a table, a back bun affects the angle of my neck. My low bun is slicked back or middle parted. I call my main version my ballet bun because I follow the line up from my ear. With each of these, I braid the ponytail first before wrapping it around. For a red carpet, I’ll secure the bun with Pattern’s hairpins, which are modeled after my mom’s pins. I usually use three: one on either side and one at the base. Otherwise, I just tuck the end of the braid under the ponytail holder. I don’t know if it looks perfect from behind, but what I can see looks fine to me!

T Australia Recommends

• R+Co Trophy Shine + Texture Spray.
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• Crown Affair The Finishing Spray.

These interviews have been edited and condensed.

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From the heavily sculpted contour lines that sought to redefine our facial architecture — popularised by Kim Kardashian and her longtime makeup artist Mario Dedivanovic — to the oversized brow phenomenon that swept across social media, and then our beauty cabinets, the 2010s were an era of beauty defined by maximalism. Lips were inflated, locks were dip-dyed in ombre colour palettes, and faux tans intensified. But it was also a time that gave rise to the millennial pink-washed direct-to-consumer beauty juggernaut Glossier. Founded by Emily Weiss as an extension of her popular blog “Into The Gloss”, Glossier arrived as a reaction (or rejection) to the extreme cosmetic aesthetic of the decade.

Glossier harnessed the consumer sentiments published in the “Into The Gloss” comment section and released a compact skincare collection designed to make beauty “accessible and uncomplicated”. Makeup, fragrance and body care formulations soon followed, but the party line remained the same: ‘Skin first. Makeup Second.’

Ten years have passed since Glossier’s launch, but ‘skin first’ remains an enduring motto, with a number of new brands and products appearing on retail shelves and in social media algorithms to support consumer demand. Which might help explain how we came to find ourselves in the age of the pigmented complexion balm.

Packaged in sticks or compacts, complexion (or beauty) balms offer lightweight, buildable colour veils for lips, cheeks and eyes, promising efficient application and skin-like results. “Most of us aren’t makeup artists or experts – we just want to enjoy getting ready easily and quickly, with products that make us feel good,” says Alia Morin, the chief marketing officer at the US-based vegan makeup brand Merit. Founded in 2021 by Katherine Power (the founder of Who What Wear and Versed skincare), Merit’s philosophy was not dissimilar to Glossier’s: “impossible to mess up everyday essentials”.

“Right from the start, we prioritised multi-tasking formulas with sheer yet buildable pigment payoff,” says Morin. The brand’s multi-use Flush Balm – “a favourite from our community”, available in nine hues for $48 each – was part of Merit’s launch assortment, and epitomises its offering of intuitive, on-the-go friendly essentials, with the added benefit of skincare ingredients like vitamin E.

“All of our colour products have some sort of skincare element to them,” explains Morin. “Flush Balm with formulated in accordance with celebrity facialist Biba De Sousa’s “no” list of over 70 pore-clogging and acne-triggering ingredients.”

At present, Flush Balm is the best selling cream blush at Sephora in North America, and the second most popular Merit product since the brand launched in the Australian market earlier this year. According to Morin, the following comes down to Flush Balm’s “one-of-a-kind formula”. “It gives a subtle, gorgeous lit-from-within glow, without any harsh lines or cakey-ness,” she says. “Rather than a matte or shimmery finish, Flush Balm’s is more of a satin – a natural-looking wash of colour that melts into your skin. It’s also buildable and lightweight, so you can add as much pigment as you want without worrying about that heavy feeling.”

Closer to home, the Australian skincare brand Rationale has recently expanded its category set to include three pigmented beauty balms for lips and cheeks, and one highlighter balm. “The Beautiful Balms are the next evolution of our Zinc Fusion Superfluid SPF50+ technology, representing a new synergy of skincare and makeup,” explains Richard Parker, Rationale’s founder and director of research.

Conceived to be used as a “translucent, lightweight enhancement of your skin’s natural glow”, the Beautiful Balms ($82 for a single balm or $296 for the Signature Glow Set of four) work double duty to nourish with skin identical ceramide lipids and a combination of zinc, vitamin E and Water Lily extract. Designed to layer as a step in your existing skincare regimen, Parker advises to “apply the balms over your existing skincare serums, hydrators and sunscreen as your final complexion enhancing step”, for a dewy, polished and natural finish.

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